


Thought That Counts

by Maeve_of_Winter



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: High School, M/M, Romance, Romantic Gestures, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 14:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13320075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maeve_of_Winter/pseuds/Maeve_of_Winter
Summary: Fangs tries to prove himself a quality boyfriend. Kevin appreciates his attempts.





	Thought That Counts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Purpleyin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purpleyin/gifts).



> Thanks to everyone reading! If you ever want to chat, here's my [Tumblr](http://maeve-of-winter.tumblr.com/). I love discussion and hearing people's thoughts, so feel free to submit ideas or just talk Riverdale.

Fangs tried to be a good boyfriend. He really, honestly tried. But he swore the earth itself was conspiring against him to make sure none of his efforts went right.

His first attempt wasn’t anything particularly special. Kevin had been good to him lately, and not just with sex. He’d also brought over a homemade dinner a few times when Fangs had mentioned his parents were working late. While Fangs’s hope during the first time had been Kevin coming over to fool around, he wasn’t going to object when Kevin hauled over basically what amounted to a goddamn Thanksgiving dinner. (Admittedly, the next time he talked about  his parents being for the night, he’d been hoping for more of Kevin’s kickass grilling.)

It seemed like an easy exchange: Kevin had given him food, so Fangs would give him food in return. And even though Sweet Pea scoffed at him, Fangs took the money he made from their next job and went to this one fancy-ass chocolate shop on the Northside, because rich people creamed themselves over those types of places, and got Kevin the biggest box of chocolate-covered strawberries he could find.

“Here you are,” he said to Kevin proudly, handing Kevin the box of strawberries the next day when he joined him during lunch. “Sweets for a sweetheart.” He gave Kevin a solid kiss, which Kevin didn’t hesitate to return, looking disappointed when Fangs pulled away. “What do you think?”

“Oh, wow. Thank you.” Kevin seemed surprised at the gift, but not quite as excited as Fangs would have liked. His kissing was as fierce as ever, though, so score one in Fangs’s book. “What’s the occasion?”

“Do I need an occasion to get you the type of presents you always should be getting?” Fangs tugged him close, loving the warmth of Kevin’s body against him.

“These look really impressive,” Kevin said politely. “It was very kind of you to think of me, Fangs.”

Fangs couldn’t help preen a bit—his boyfriend thought his gift was impressive! “How about you eat one right now?” he suggested. Kevin had a real nice mouth, and Fangs would be lying if he said he didn’t want to see his lips parting and wrapping around a plump strawberry, maybe closing his eyes in bliss as he savored the taste . . .

Kevin hesitated. “It’s okay. I try to keep away from desserts, you know?”

“Yeah, but you run, like, five miles a day,” Fangs pointed out. “One strawberry isn’t going to kill you.”

“Well . . .” Kevin shifted uncomfortably.    

“Oh, man, you’re not diabetic, are you?” Fangs asked, a new worry occuring to him.

“No. It’s just just that I’m allergic to strawberries.” Kevin gave a sheepish shrug. “I won’t be able to eat any of them.”

At Kevin’s admission, Fangs couldn’t help but deflate a little bit, but he was quick to reassure him boyfriend. “Don’t worry. I’ll just have to step up my game with you from now on.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Kevin began, but Fangs shook his head.

“Let me do this, Kev,” he said, determined, a new goal arising before him. He had to prove that he was the quality of boyfriend Kevin deserved.

Fangs wasn’t the type to give up easily—particularly not where romance was concerned. With the strawberries out, he made plans for the two of them to have romantic night alone together. He found out the next time both of his parents had to work the nightshift and told Kevin to come over then.

Next, he went out to collect supplies: all of those expensive bath oils and salts that people who took baths apparently liked to use, a bouquet of long-stemmed roses, and a bunch of candles. He didn’t know what scents of bath shit or candles to get, so when the cute salesgirl advised him that lavender was good for relaxation, he decided to get everything that smelled like lavender. Except for the long-stemmed red roses, which just smelled like roses. He was going to rip off their petals and scatter them around the bath all suave-like.

But dealing with those roses proved to be harder than he thought. At first he lobbed the head of of one of the roses and just tore the petals off, but then he noticed the petals began to turn brown really quickly. He then tried to keep the rose heads on the stems as long as possible, but that meant wrestling with the thorns, and pretty soon his fingers were torn to shit. He could have used gloves, but all of his pairs reeked of motor oil from wearing them while he worked on his bike.

By the time Kevin came over, the bath was ready, with the candles all lit up and the rose petals floating on the water. But the petals looked raggedly even to Fangs—he was losing both patience and blood by the end, and the awkward tearing in the roses showed it. He just hoped Kevin would be too dazzled by the romance of it all to notice it.

“Hey, Fangs,” Kevin said when he answered the door, greeting him with a smile and a kiss. God, his smile looked it incredible—it was what Fangs had first noticed about him. Well, that and his tight ass—Fangs had first seen him in his wrestling singlet.  

“Babydoll, come here.” Fangs went to squeeze his ass, but the moment his shredded fingers came into contact with Kevin’s rough jeans, sharp pain laced through them, forcing him to let go. “Oh, fuck.”

“My God, your hands!” Kevin exclaimed at the sight of all of the puncture wounds. “What happened?”

“I’ll show you,” Fangs said, leading him toward the bathroom. With Kevin’s concern for him, he couldn’t help but hope Kevin would take one look at the everything he’d set up and see him as a sick-ass martyr who would do anything for love and was totally the best guy around.

Except what he didn’t realize was that all the combined lavender would smell like someone had just dumped out a bucketful of an entire Red Hat Society’s perfume. When he opened the door, a thick wave of the stuff billowed out right at them. He’d been in the process of opening his mouth to speak, but he ended up coughing and sputtering on the thick, heavy scent of lavender. Still, Fangs tried to look as if all was going to plan and swept his arm at the collection of candles around the bath and the petal-filled tub.

“What do you think?” he asked, trying to keep and his cool and praying that Kevin wouldn’t also happen to have an allergy to lavender. It was really goddamn dense—Fangs had to make sure not to breathe in too deeply.

Kevin grinned at him and began leaning in for a kiss. “I love it. Thank you, Fangs.”

Thrilled with himself, Fangs moved in to meet Kevin, inwardly cheering that he’d found a way to show his boyfriend how much he appreciated him. And Kevin’s body would feel absolutely fantastic pressed up against his in the warm water. If the water was still warm, that was. Thinking about it, Fangs had added the water a while ago, back before he tackled the rose petals.

Trying his best to be discreet, Fangs dipped a hand into the water and then instantly pulled back at a sharp sting. “Jesus Christ!”

“What’s wrong?” Kevin asked immediately, his eyes wide and concerned.

“My hand just hurt like a bitch for a minute there.” Fangs grimaced, once again observing the sorry state of his fingers.

“Hmm.” Kevin took Fangs’s hand in his and examined it. “Did you add anything to the bath water?”

“Yeah, some soaps and oils and shit like that.” Fang shrugged, trying to play it off by acting getting this bath ready wasn’t something he’d slaved over.

Kevin nodded. “Then I bet some of those chemicals got into the cut on your hand.” He rose, tugging Fangs up with him. “C’mon, I’ll get a first aid kit and patch you up. But you probably shouldn’t risk the bath at all.”

With the knowledge that all his hard work had been for nothing, Fangs couldn’t help but let his shoulders slump. Then he brightened. “Will you wear a sexy nurse outfit while you’re helping me?”

Kevin grinned devilishly at him. “We’ll see.”

Sexy nurse outfit or not, he still had to prove he was a quality boyfriend for Kevin. Let no one say that Fangs Fogarty did not treat his boyfriend well. So, when he heard about some swanky new restaurant in Greendale, he made instantly reservations for dinner, determined to ride off to there on his motorcycle with Kevin clinging onto him tightly the entire way.

They wound up taking Kevin’s truck since it was raining. That was the first bad sign. The second was getting a flat tire in the middle of goddamn nowhere.

 _“Fuuuck!”_ Fangs groaned, pounding the dashboard with his hands. He turned to Kevin. “Can you call Triple C?” Maybe he could at least salvage some of their date.

Kevin only laughed at him, reaching into the back of the truck cab for the tire jack. “Why would I need to? I know how to change a tire. Don’t you?”

“Why should I?” Fangs retorted. “I drive a motorcycle, not a car.”

“Sure, okay.” Kevin rolled his eyes playfully. “Hold tight in here while I fix the tire out there.”

Fangs shook his head. “I’ll come with you.”

He found an umbrella beneath the front passenger seat and held it over Kevin as he worked, reasoning that while he might not be able to change a tire, he could still prove his usefulness. The two of them were mostly silent, with Kevin concentrating on his task and Fangs becoming more guilty by the second that he still hadn’t managed to show any kind of gratitude toward him.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” he blurted out when Kevin rose to stand again.

Kevin’s eyebrows shot up. “About what?”

“Y’know, this.” Fangs half-heartedly waved his arm at the truck before letting it fall to his side. “I try to give you chocolates, but you’re allergic. I try to fix you a nice bath, and I end up fucking up my hands. I try to take you out to dinner, and we get a flat. Seems like any time I try to do something nice for you, it totally fails.”

“ ‘Fails’?” Kevin looked him directly. “Fangs, why are you are doing any of this stuff in the first place?”

“That a trick question? Because you’re my boyfriend,” Fangs replied, somewhat puzzled. “I gotta show you that I like you.”

“Exactly.” Kevin took Fangs’s free hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You going through all this trouble for me already shows me that you care, Fangs. I don’t need any fancy chocolates or dinners or baths—the fact that you took the time and made the effort tells me all I need to know.” He leaned in to rest his forehead against Fangs’s. “And I know that as far as boyfriends go, you’re pretty damn phenomenal.”

“You think so?” Fangs asked, a happy flush he could feeling seeping into his face. It had been a real kick in the balls to have everything go wrong each time—knowing Kevin didn’t hold any of that against him, that he appreciated all of Fangs’s attempts anyway, sent a thrill zipping through him.

“I know so.” Kevin pressed his lips to Fangs in the gentlest of kisses. “To tell you the truth, Fangs, I don’t even want to go to that restaurant. I just want to spend some time with you. Or, you know . . .” he spoke directly into Fangs’s ear, his words tickling his skin. “ _Make_ some time.”

Fangs snorted at him. “Keller, you dog.”

“Oh, come on,” Kevin challenged him. “You haven’t noticed that my truck has a bench seat? It’s pretty cold out here in the rain.” His eyes sparkled with mischief. “Maybe you should take me inside and warm me up.”

“That I can do, Keller,” Fangs told him with a smirk, grabbing the jack and tossing it into the truck before grabbing Kevin and ushering him in as well. Maybe he wasn’t the best at romantic gestures, but he sure as hell could show his quality in other ways. “That I can do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone reading! If you ever want to chat, here's my [Tumblr](http://maeve-of-winter.tumblr.com/). I love discussion and hearing people's thoughts, so feel free to submit ideas or just talk Riverdale.


End file.
